I got to the venue at about six thirty, with the doors supposedly opening at seven, but as usual I expected it to be about a half hour late, but they ended up opening at eight fifteen for whatever reason, probably because of the meet and greet or something. In any event, I spent most of the time at the record store upstairs and ended up buying a CD that I'd been meaning to hear for awhile (7000 Dying Rats - Season in Hell).

I got in the venue as Arkona was setting up, which may lead you to ask, "What about Huntress?" This is the gist of the story that I got from about 3 or 4 different people: Apparently a few minutes before Huntress was going on, one of the security guards saw the lead vocalist throwing up by their van and thought it was a drunk chick and was going to bounce her when a roadie came and scooped her up and dragged her to the stage, which she apparently walked onto using the roadie as a crutch and finally when she caught her balance started the first song. She apparently kept fucking up during it and falling down and shit, so after two songs of this they had to stop playing. Needless to say the rest of the band was fucking pissed at her.

Anyway, back to Arkona, actually let me start with saying that I feel bad for Turisas for having to follow such amazing acts like Arkona and Alestorm. So, based on that, needless to say, Arkona slayed. They are just everything that is right with folk metal, great heavy parts coupled with some of the best folk music and just the right amount of bounce. Masha called for a "vault of death. Now!" (wall of death) during Stenka Na Stenku which was pretty entertaining despite no one really understanding her at first. I'm pretty sure this is the set...might not be in the right order, but I'm pretty sure on the songs.

Alestorm was next and the crowd just went insane for them! Everybody in the middle of the crowd/pit area was dancing around and just all around having a good time. Their guitarist lost his voice, so instead of Heavy Metal Pirates, they opted to play No Quarter (And as Chris Bowes said, "Instrumentals are people too. Don't discriminate.") instead, which was a very welcomed surprise. Besides No Quarter, the highlights to me were Midget Saw and Sunk'n Norwegian. During Rum the singer belly flopped into the crowd and crowd surfed around while the audience was shouting the chorus. I thought that that was pretty cool. There must have been a lot of pirate paraphernalia in the pit afterwards, because me and some other guy lost our eye patches and my friend and GarageMetal both lost their pirate hats. Another one of my friends got Alestorm and Turisas' set lists, so here's Alestorm's. Sorry for the blurry picture, I was trying to hold it steady while riding in a car going 80. The bottom part that is kind of cut off says, "Oh shit we've run out of songs."

I went upstairs to the merch table and bought Arkona's live DVD and GarageMetal talked to the guitarist from Alestorm who said that they would probably be back in November in another support slot. Then it was time for Turisas to take the stage. As I said earlier, I feel bad for Turisas having to follow Arkona and Alestorm. If it would have been other bands or they played earlier in the show, I would have enjoyed them a hell of a lot more. They were good, but definitely not great. Although they did play the three songs that I wanted to hear most. (To Holmgard and Beyond, Rasputin and Battle Metal) Here's their set list:

This is now up on my list for show of the year. I was surprised with Turisas, I didn't expect them to be that good! I'm actually listening to their latest album for the first time now and the songs played from it definitely sounded better live. Alestorm and Arkona were both awesome as expected, I'm hoping Arkona comes back ASAP. They're now one of those bands that I can't miss when they come back around.

Great review! My first impression of you saying the Huntress singer was puking was that she had the flu, which I don't know how it was in everyone elses cities, but many Folk Metal tours ago someone had the flu and get everyone who went to the show sick.

I can't wait to see Turisas play a full set! They were the first Folk Metal band I got into, and that set that they played at Cradle of Filth/Nachtmystium was not long enough at all!

Yeah they even mentioned that they had jack shit time to play last time they were in the states and that now they have a full set for everyone. And believe me, it's a hell of a set! My friends wanted to leave early so I left a little more than halfway through their set but it's not like I didn't enjoy it by any means.

This is now up on my list for show of the year. I was surprised with Turisas, I didn't expect them to be that good! I'm actually listening to their latest album for the first time now and the songs played from it definitely sounded better live. Alestorm and Arkona were both awesome as expected, I'm hoping Arkona comes back ASAP. They're now one of those bands that I can't miss when they come back around.

And you got both sets from Turisas AND Alestorm?

Yeah, my friend that I came with (that wasn't Matt) was up on the rail the whole time so she got both their sets and was so damn close to getting Arkona's.

I went upstairs to the merch table and bought Arkona's live DVD and GarageMetal talked to the guitarist from Alestorm who said that they would probably be back in November in another support slot. Then it was time for Turisas to take the stage. As I said earlier, I feel bad for Turisas having to follow Arkona and Alestorm. If it would have been other bands or they played earlier in the show, I would have enjoyed them a hell of a lot more. They were good, but definitely not great. Although they did play the three songs that I wanted to hear most. (To Holmgard and Beyond, Rasputin and Battle Metal) Here's their set list:

That would be great... I have an inkling of who would be the headliner based on a recent album release and no US Tour headlining for their album like their last album release.

That is correct... apparently met some people after the show and they took Christopher there... and now it's a song.

The sad part is I actually know the guys who run the bar, but no idea they ran the bar. They work at the local music shop here in town as well. SO I figured that's all they did. I was sooooo wrong, haha